Night has fallen, only one of the moons is up, darkness surrounds us. As I look around I can barely see the kobold shamans I have surrounded myself with. I had not much of a choice, I was one of the few who spoke draconic, and these volatile creatures have to be directed. In the distance I can see the glowing algae we have laid out.. the range of our ranged weapons.

 

“damn why did I do this again” a mumbling in the abandoned outer city of Sorø, by a wood elf, Ricardo. The light of the one moon is enough to let him see that nothing is closing on him. An half hour since the sun went under and still nothing. “I can’t wait any longer, I need to get back”. An arrow dipped in oil, and lit. Light surrounds him now, for a moment his eyes need to adjust. “For victory” he mumbles as he releases his full drawn bow, the light of arrow sweeping across the sky.. *thunk*.. nothing..
“shit”, quickly another arrow is drawn and another light is sent across the sky. This time on landing a blaze is lighted.

In the distance there are shapes, moving.. “fuck!”. And quickly the elf dashes back to the walls.

 

Sighing puffing, between breaths “I’m getting to old for this”, running for his dear life K’Tau is fleeing as fast as his legs can carry him away from the undead horde right behind him.

He is running between buildings now, he should be close to the wall “A friend here, on the other side of the wall, don’t shoot”.
He keeps running, hoping for dear life he won’t be peppered by arrows by his friends.

“K’Tau over here!” A dwarf, it must be Cristoff!. Running towards the wall he finds the kindly dwarf on the wall. With some effort he is able to get up. “Cristoff, I need to speak to the spellcasters, quickly where are they”. “Romero is this way lad, follow me”
Romero, great, well.. nothing can be changed about what he has done now…

 

“But we have an ally now.. he might want some tribute after the battle is over, but it’s something”. Romero tries hard not to face palm in front of his family, why did that bloody dragon do things without consulting him, he clearly missed the common sense any farmer has. Well nothing that can be changed about what K’Tau had done now..
“Esk is that way, tell her as well” He growled, pointing to the roof of a nearby building. I need to focus.
He had been placed at the head of an 100 unruly kobolds which were a pain in the ass. And in charge of 40 of the most sensible people in Sorø, farmers, half of them family. The groups were quite some contrast.

“Break it up” He growled at the kobolds that were so inpatient that the almost started fighting with themselves. The light had gone up in the distance, and shapes were moving, they were getting close.

“Light the fire”, Redemptions voice for further down the wall. “Kobolds!, it is time to earn your keep, heads up!” “Friends family, the undead are upon us, prepare. We will strike them down, and protect our town!”

Romero grabbed a handful of magic of the air, bending it to his will, and threw it a pool of algae, algae soaked in oil. Fire blossomed, and with it light appeared. The light showed lines and lines of the undead, skeleton archers, walking in perfect unison, each lifting their legs at the exact same time, each drawing their bows. They were a strong contrast to the ghouls surrounding them, viscous beast, scattered and moving erratic, but all of them towards him.

“Read! Aim! Fire!”

 

“Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck” Why was he even here, he didn’t sign up for this. He just wanted a quite place, away from the big cities where people expected things from him. But nooo, he was drafted into a band of adventures and now was supposed to defend a city against a undead horde. This was certainly not what Garitas had signed up for. “Men, ready your crossbows, ready your slings, as soon as you can see the creatures step on the glowing algae, SHOOT!”.
Garitas had chosen to be with the band of Doemas for good reasons. This fellow at least had an inkling of what he was doing, trained leader and commander. This was probably the safest place on the battlefield, except for maybe in the basement over there.. hmm tempting..

 

It did not seem like were falling for their fake wall, “Men Tritherion will guide us, follow me for glory, for FREEDOM!!”. Redemption let her squadron of graduates towards where the fighting was thickest. These men and women were well trained, loading their bows and slings on the run. “FIRE!”. The light of the bonfire in the distance was just enough to see a wave of ghouls fall under the barrage of arrows and stones her troops send at them.
The kobolds under Romero’s command had inflicted quite some damage already, there might be a change, Tritherion willing, that they would survive the day.

 

BRUMGGH!! The wall exploded with a deafening sound, kobolds were sent flying, and even some of the ghouls were hit by the debris scattering from, what used to be a wall, and splinters from a giant stone.

He wouldn’t blame Davos too much for lighting the torches, it used to be their plan after all. It seemed like the ghouls were moving in through the breach in the walls. Ricardo grabbed one of the villagers by his shoulder. The poor lad, probably just getting out of puberty.. that was.. 8 years for humans right? It didn’t matter now. “Lad, go run that way, tell the commanders that lighting the torches will attract catapult fire”, the boy didn’t seem to mind getting away from the ghouls and shot away.
With the ghouls now frantically moving through the breach Ricardo saw his opening. He motioned to have his elite kobolds to follow him, while he jumped over the wall, towards the back line of ghouls.
He hit hard, the ghouls were not suspecting them, he jumped up and kicked a ghoul right in the back of its head. The creature went face first to the ground, with another kick to its head, which denting its hard skull, it stopped moving. Around him the kobolds were attacking stabbing, and clubbing the ghouls from all sides.
Four more ghouls fell at Ricardo’s hands before he was bitten, the creatures foul poisons tried to paralyze him, but it was nothing next to the kind of poisons he had enjoyed so many nights. Just as he shook off the effect he heard a neighing and clomping of hoofs coming from behind him.

 

Yes this much safer, he had left the wall just before it had collapsed and now he had a nice vantage point, behind a barrel, to shoot firebolts in the horde of ghouls. Garitas sort of felt sorry for the people of Sorø he had left behind there, but really they should have just joined him and let the kobolds suck up the first rounds of damage. As he aimed his next firebolt the ghoul he was aiming for was scattered aside.. by.. “ahhh shit!”.
The heavy cavalry was storming right through the breach, straight towards his hiding spot. Garitas ducked away behind his barrel but it was a matter of seconds before the undead knights were upon him. The first knocked the barrel aside, leaving him open. Legs of horses all around him, a piercing pain over his left shoulder. He moved.

Dancing between the legs of the larger creatures, tumbling, an opening!. He jumped.

Clutching on the hindquarters on one of the demonic horses he grabbed one of his many daggers with a flourish. “Not on my watch sucker!” He yelled at he pinned the leg of the warrior with his dagger straight to the flank of its horse. He jumped of and rolled, taking cover immediately. Both the rider and horse let out a screech, the horse moved to its left shaking its rider of, who, still pinned to his horse, met a swift second dead under its horses hooves.

Not wasting any time Garitas made an arcane symbol and turned invisible to the eyes simple creatures. “now where can I hide now”

 

Those ghouls were tearing through his parts of the wall, this was not good. “MEN, KOBOLDS, FIRE, FIRE AT WILL”. A small teenage boy came running towards him. “Sir dragon, sir dragon, the elf told me to tell you to not light the torches as the undead will fire with catapults at it!”.

“Catapults you say?”
“You, You” Romero growled in draconic to 2 Kobolds “there light the torch over there” He said while pointing of a piece of empty wall, a horde of ghouls in front of it who were attacking with all they got.

The kobolds scampered away taking out some flint and steel from somewhere in their rag tag clothing. Romero was able shoot of two firebolt before a light shone where the torches were lit. The light showed that the wall was a much worse state then he had first imagined, one of the creatures was already halfway through. Hunting these beasts in the streets of Sorø would certainly equal suicide. Seconds, which seemed like an eternity, later he heard the whistling sound of something big flying through the air. “TAKE COVER!”, he ducked away as two boulders fell surrounding the lit torches, crunching the ghouls that were now crawling over the walls.
Nice, that took care of that problem. His attention was drawn to the back lines of undead, something swift was approaching, something large. Were those horses? The skeletal knights thundered past the lit bonfire, lighting their necrotic glory.
“fuck”

“Time to take out the big guns”, Romero focused, drawing the magic from his surroundings. Raw magic sucked from his environment moulded together between his claws. Pure chaos was hurled at the approaching knights, it exploded in a fiery ball. The knights scattered, taking evasive actions. One of their number didn’t quite make it out in time and was blown of his horse, both horse and rider completely scorched. The rest however, kept thundering on.

 

Esk saw the ball of fire explode before she had even noticed the undead knights approaching, she had just sucked out the energy keeping one of the ghouls standing with visions of how true death should look. It was a chilling experience for her, remembering that place, but it certainly was effective.

These knights however posed a far more serious problem. Taking out her spellbook she opened it at the page with her most destructive spell, keeping the book open and afloat with a simple cantrip, she began the incantation to send measured destruction towards the knights. Lines of magic were drawn from around her, coming together in a ball the size of an apple in front of her chest. As soon as she spoke the last syllable the ball shot towards the knights, engulfing them in another storm of fiery magic.

To the shamanic kobolds she started to growl, stopped and started again. This draconic was far harder to speak then to read!. “set their armor ablaze!”. The kobold began chanting, and before long the knights their armor was bright red to the eyes, as it was heated to blistering intensity.
The knights however crashed right through the lines of ghouls and through the wall that was now reduced to rubble.

 

K’tau called down a shining light from the skies again, the last of the skeletons here turned to dust by the holy power of Bahamut.  Those knights were wreaking havoc between the kobolds slaughtering them.

A piercing howl ran through the cold, hectic and bloody night. The howl send shivers down his back, he knew what this meant, but how to even explain the others what these creatures were.
Next to him a large wolf like creatures emerged from nothingness and bit down on one of the Finley farmers. The poor gnome lost most of his left leg, falling over before the wolf disappeared again. Not a heartbeat later 3 of the creatures appeared and tore whatever was left of the small little gnome to bits. Before K’tau could even react the creates were gone again. “shit” “PREPARE YOUR ATTACKS FIRE WHEN THE HOUNDS APPEAR”.

 

Redemption withdrew her blade from the now permanent corpse of the last ghoul. On her side a dwarven cleric held out his hand and turned the last skeletons of their side of the battlefield to dust. Her trainees had done good work, but there was still a lot to do. The more mundane of the undead were now dispatched, but still at least half of knights were still standing, cutting down kobolds. Everywhere around her flashes of green light appeared emitting howls and leaving death before disappearing again.
Just in  front her one of the hounds appeared, her arm shot up, parrying a bite of the savage beast with her trusty weapon. Before it faded away again it was engulfed with a magic flames, leaving its charred corps behind.

“We got this laddie, we have the magic users”. Cristoff stood next to her, the bloody dwarf must have been responsible for at least half of the dead ghouls in the last melee, at some point she had even had to restrain him from jumping of the wall, so great his battle lust had become.
Above their heads she heard a familiar screech of a griffon in battle, and not 2 seconds later a thump as something fell from the sky. Grifferion was protecting them from even more horrifying creatures flying above.

“Go, go laddie, they will need your trained men on the other side of the wall”, not looking if she responded to his urgings the dwarf jumped of the wall and started running towards the knights that were now rampaging through the streets of Sorø. His axe held high, he screamed:

“For Battle!

For Sorø!

For the Forge!

FOR   MAH   WIFE!!”

 

Ricardo was a whirlwind! Legs flying out in kicks, his fists a blur of motion ghouls and skeleton falling before him as he worked his way through their numbers. It wasn’t until the last of the creatures fell that he realized the pile of bodies he was standing upon. Only 5 of the 40 elite kobolds he started with were still surrounding him, they were looking around nervously and in slight admiration at this elf with a hundred years of fighting experience. The group was standing in one of the places where the wall had been breached, he could see 2 groups of resistance. Doemas and Davons had rallied all the remaining people of Sorø in a group and firing all the weapons they could find. The other group, consisting solely of kobolds jittered around their king who bellowed orders at the troops surrounding him.
For a moment it was quiet, no enemies around, but the silence did not last. The group of dread knights came riding from inside Sorø towards the kobolds. The Kobold king yelled, branded his axe and stood his guard, around him his kobolds turned and fled. The Kobolds were run down by the knights till the last one, the king however knocked the first knight from his saddle, and grabbed a complete horse, with barding and all, from the ground and hurled it at another knight, both falling down in a heap of broken bones.
Ricardo grabbed his bow and started to shoot at the knights while moving towards the people of Sorø.
“we need to take them down before they can charge at us or we are done for!”, “already on it!” Doemas yelled “FIRE!”

Another 3 knights went down on their combined assault. “If I live through this night free drinks for all” Davons quipped with a tremor in his voice. As his voice died out, flashes of green appeared all around them. The dogs started dropping people left and right. One of the beast appeared right in front of Ricardo, who, with reflexes brought about after decades of training, let his fist fly out and punch the dog straight on its nose. The beast looked surprised at this creature that had hurt it, and then poofed away again. Next to him Davons got bit by one of the dogs and fell down, Ricardo didn’t waste a moment and stepped over him to protect the sergeant from any attacks. All those drinks would be good for business.

 

Leaning out of a window Garitas aimed.. *swoosh*, the firebolt hit the knight right in the face. Only 4 more left, they remaining soldiers should be able to handle those. Green flashes sprang up around the people from Sorø and left destruction in their wake.
Behind him in the second floor building Garitas heard the soft patting of paws hitting a wooden floor. Spinning around he was just in time to dodge away of teeth going for his head. The beast was just inches away from him, he could see the drool dripping between its dagger like teeth. Not wasting a moment Garitas jumped away behind a table, waves his hands and became invisible. When he looked back into the room it was empty. He could just, softly, hear the sound of really big dog panting. Very, very slowly Garitas came up from behind the table, crawling towards where the sound of the beast was coming from.

The beast became visible again in a flash of light, biting at the spot Garitas was just mere seconds ago but now biting nothing but air. The beast looked around disappointed sniffing the air, just as it turned to face him, its head turned away, turning it the direction of the gates. Not letting his change go by Garitas struck, crossing his daggers and cutting open the throat of the beast in one swoop. The undead dog tried to yelp, but nothing but a gurgling came from its throat. Leaving it for dead Garitas went to the window again, down the people of Sorø were doing bad. The last knights were down, but the strange dogs had dealt a lot of damage. But now he could see the creatures all facing towards the gate, and one by one they poofed out of existence.

 

She hoped she had done well in leaving the spellcasters on their own, this however was no time to dwell on it. Redemption was running with her group, as fast as they could to reinforce the walls. Just as they crossed their fake gate one of the sickly green glowing dogs appeared before their group. She halted bringing her weapon in a guard position. Around the group of warriors more and more of the dogs began to appear until they were completely surrounded. She could swear she saw the dog in front of her grin, as it disappeared as did all the others around them. “Oh by Tritherion!”

“let me, let me past” a fellow came from their group covered in furs. He was mumbling and waiving his hands around. “this has better be some impressive magic” Redemption sighed at one of the first that had joined her church. “I think it will be useful enough” the man grinned.
As he finished tiny flecks of gold and silver came falling from the sky. What good would some confetti do at this moment? But as the flecks drifted down they showed the creatures surrounding them outlining them in light as they slowly approached.
The man looked at her “now it is a more equal fight”. As he said it, his facial features changed his jaws and nose becoming bigger, hair sprouting all over him, in seconds she was faced by a big brown bear, who didn’t waste any time and bulldozed its way over to the dog like creatures.

He was quickly followed by an imposing half orc wielding an even more imposing great sword and then by Redemption herself, her sword held high. “For Tritherion! For Sorø!”

 

All the cannon fodder (kobolds) under his command were done for, it was him the left over farmers, K’Tau and Esk. The last two had joined them on the wall after all the shamanic kobolds were killed by these freaking dogs. These undead were way too smart to his taste, targeting the most dangerous of their allies. Four Esks had arrived to the wall, but only two were still standing now, he was slowly getting used to seeing her die by now.

The knights could be seen rampaging through the streets every now and then, every now and then a scream of citizen being trampled down could be heard, however two times he had also heard the screams of horses dying, which could only be good news. He tried to shoot a firebolt whenever the knights came into view, but to no great effect.

“50 minutes until sun up” The analytic voice of Esk came, “we just need to hold out until then”.

“easier said than done” Romero muttered to himself.

Next to him one of the dogs appeared biting the man next to him, he fell down. When Romero looked down he saw a familiar face. “DAD!”

Bile rose up in his throat, Romero spewed out the flames over 2 of the green dogs. The creatures tried to turn invisible but their forms were outlined in the spray of flames coming from the enraged dragonborn. Romero let his magic Surge! Magic flowed from him in the form of fire, a big explosion surrounded a dozen of dogs sending them howling in pain. The magic around him was in flux, he could his clothes on him slowly raising up due to the magic in the air. He gathered the excess energy and formed it into bolts, the magical missile flew unerringly towards the dogs blasting some of them with enough force that they would not rise again.

 

“K’Tau help Jonathan!” Romero yelled at him. Holding up his shield to defend an attack K’Tau shot a look back at the yelling and saw the old men lying on the ground. K’Tau gathered his faith and spoke with conviction “Bahamut heal this man!”
The bite wounds on the man closed and Jonathen came back to consciousness, grabbing his weapons he got back into the fray.

“Just 25 more minutes until sun up!” Esk was having his back, all her illusions were gone, she was looking haggard, wounded, but still standing. “K’Tau could you give undead dog at 3 o clock a hit for me?”. Not questioning her, K’Tau moved the spiritual war pick he had created in honor of Bahamut to the creature, and swung at it. The creature got pierced by the weapon but remained standing. Next to him Esk muttered while holding the crystal around her neck in one hand and her book in the other, as she finished the spell the closed the book with a snap and pointed her hand at the dog. The creature, blinked, yawned, settled on its front paws and went to sleep.

“not dead, but taken out of the fight just the same” she said grinning up at him. “Now show us what you’re god is capable of”

K’Tau grabbed his holy symbol and began the incantations:
“By Bahamut and all that his holy, you show us your way in the life you give us. Your way is living, show these undead your way, show them life!
A divine pulse emitted from his holy symbol, warping the air where it traveled. All the undead creatures around them looked up as the pulse moved through them. The hounds whined and backed away under the influence of Bahamuts power.
“Get them now, now while they are scared!”

 

10 more seconds, 10 more seconds of which each second could be her last.. again. And that was if her calculations were correct.

9, magic was strong in the air, probably Romero’s fault, he was sloppy like that. Not that she minded, exhausted as she was any help gathering the magic around her was welcome.

7, the spell was ready the dog in front of her was reminded of how real death should feel like, and much of its energy disappeared in a blink.

6, its bite was clumsy, slow she could easily step aside.

4, almost there now.

3, the effect shaken of the dog lunched, clearing the ground straight for her. No time to move away

2, her shield up, enlarged and strengthened with a word and a thought.

1, the dog bounced off leaving her magically exhausted but alive.

0, she looked up, at the horizon “come on light?!?

-1, nothing

-2, “Of fuck, oh fuck!”

-3, A sunbeam fell from the sky, lighting the patch where they were fighting. The dogs responded like it was fire. Stopping whatever they were doing, howling in pain and confusion.

Seeing their opening the people of Sorø attacked, cutting down the disoriented creatures in less than a minute.

From the streets Cristoff approached, dragging his precious waraxe behind him, covered in wounds. “Think I got them all” he smiled happily at exhausted at them.

In the sky Esk could see a swarm of giant bats fly away from Sorø, the great shape of Grifferion approached them. Landing next to them, Redemption and Doemas dismounted.
“Is it done? Are they gone, did we survive? Doemas asked, desperately? Redemption answered first “for all we now they could just be preparing for another round, Grifferion you up to take a look?” The Griffin looked at its master with incredulousness.
“I’ll ask Ara, she is faster and quicker” Esk interrupted them. She whistled and a large owl came flying from a nearby roof.

 

Looking through the eyes of her familiar Esk could see the remainders of the undead army group, the bats were flying north ahead of the army that had turned tail and was turning back towards the necropolis. The army was greatly diminished, but so was their own, an offensive maneuver was out of the question no matter how vulnerable those catapults looked. She turned back.

“They are leaving us, seems they bit of more than what they could chew”. “That’s good news” Doemas said, “Help me gather the dead, after that we rest, tomorrow we celebrate the fact that we are still standing!